Police Commissioner Gari Baki not happy with governments budget allocation

THE country’s chief spy Gari Baki is very disappointed that the top intelligence network he heads has been allocated a mere K5.9 million in the 2015 Budget.

Mr Baki, who is the director-general of the National Intelligence Organisation, had asked for K15 million.

He said in recent years the NIO receives annual allocations of K5 million, sometimes K4 million, which had set back its operations in intelligence operations.

Mr Baki, a former police commissioner, said he had put forward a proposal for K15 million to the budget steering committee early this year.

He said the request for a major increase was because there was much plans for NIO as well as preparations for the upcoming 2015 South Pacific Games and the 2018 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit which would involve leaders of 21 nations.

Interviewed by the Post-Courier yesterday, Mr Baki cried foul over the Government allocation of K5.9 million to fund intelligence services of the nation.

"K4-5 million allocated for NIO has not done any good for this organisation," he said.

"The Government might as well forget about NIO. This is absolute madness. I asked for K15.5 million and they only gave me K5.9 million.

"I need to get new staff, I have no telephone lines, we need new vehicles. We speak about the law and order but the people behind the scenes in intelligence are not properly funded.

"We have the Pacific Games coming, we planned for that and we want to prepare for the 2018 APEC Meeting, we have nothing. In the past seven years the NIO had allocated budgets of between K3m to K5 million, these funds had not effectively served the organization and affecting most operations of the office, Mr Baki said.